Louisville mod thinks it’s an even race for Rice with Tech, with Louisville having the edge. Tech fans say it sounds like their “insider” is in the dark on this one (lol when you’re basing your confidence off Chris Arvin but go ahead).
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Gotta think that Rice would easily be Louisville’s if they weren’t perpetually mired in the NCAA doghouse.
Yum Center >>>>>> Cassell, etc.
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I’ve never been to JPJ West. Is it nice?
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I think it’s only close because VT hired his high school coach. If they whiff on Rice, that will have turned into a pointless hire
The whole hiring the high school coach thing doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe it gives some comfort to the kid, but if I were a high school player, I’d be looking at college as a chance to be coached by even better coaches, not the same guy that’s been doing it.
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That’s true, but I always assumed part of it was the lesser version of hiring Dad (Porter Jr, those USC bigs), or a brother (Cade at OK St), or a cousin (Ben Simmons/LSU, if memory serves?). It’s basically a guilt trip.
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My HS soccer coach barely knew the positions on the field. I definitely would not have followed him to college. LOL!
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Agree. College is for bigger and better.
Back in the day
Holland hired Jeff Lamp’s and Lee Raker’s coach
Richard Schmidt
That worked out pretty well
Raker had committed Lamp was headed to Indiana
Then we hired their coach.
Not 100% sure
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Damn. Couldn’t live with the guilt of getting away with that foul call probably. Downward spiral.
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Is Mike Jones known to not be a good coach or something? He was a really good player at ODU back in the early 90’s. Beat J Willy’s UVA team in Scope. Played pro ball in Europe. Had a lot of good teams at Dematha. How many of our assistants came in with more experience than Jones?
Being a long time HS coach and/or having experience doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be a good college coach. As others have said in this topic, if he was forecasted to be a stellar college coach or recruiter he would’ve been snagged up a long time ago
Wow, I would have assumed he enjoyed working with young people (like our own Cornel Parker at Maury HS) and perhaps he was ready to try something different. But if you say he’s been trying to get a college assistant job for the last 15-20 years, and no one would hire him, I guess he must be pretty bad.
I don’t know anything about him, and I’m not assuming he’s bad at all, I just think college is your chance to learn from new people at the next level.
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I’m not saying that, I have no idea. Just that if he was appealing to the college level, with all his DMV connections, somebody would’ve taken a flyer long before Tech.
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Well, their head coach has been around a long time and seems pretty well respected, so there’s someone to learn a lot from. Your argument would apply to every new assistant to the college level. Everyone has to start somewhere. And as new assistants go, Jones has a lot of experience. He has a bunch of former players in the NBA. And if Mike Young’s weakness is in name recognition and connection with high school kids, Jones can help bridge that having worked with them for many years, including for USA Basketball. For a school that went with a career Wofford guy at head coach, hiring Jones doesn’t seem too big a risk.
Again, not saying it’s a bad hire. But if they did it just to lure some kids from that school, I’m not sure it’s a compelling reason.
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I agree that would be a bad reason. I’d be surprised if that was the only reason. It seems likely, with that many years in the DMV big leagues and with USA Basketball, that he has a lot of connections and name recognition. Entirely possible he has some detractors through all those battles too.
Jones has worked with USA Basketball a lot too, coaching the U16 team. He’s well connected all around the country. I doubt they hired him just to get a couple DeMatha players, but probably did think it would be a nice bonus.
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Jones was a good hire, and here’s why from his bio:
Of Note: Jones has tutored six players at DeMatha who have gone on to the NBA.
They need someone on that staff who has head coached NBA players.
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